Numbers game for the Illini as spring practice looms

CHAMPAIGN — Football coaches from peewee to the pros start preseason practices with one simple activity.

They write out the names of all of their players with thick markers on pieces of athletic tape and stick those name tags on the corresponding players’ helmets.

In his first season as Illinois’ head coach, Lovie Smith admits his staff was forced to spend a lot of time looking at those names.

“We know each other a lot better now,” Smith said last week. “It was about the names on the helmets and things like that, we were trying to establish a culture, and we’re still trying to establish that, but we’re in a lot better place personnel-wise.”

The usually coy Smith was willing to list the Illini likely to start on the offensive line — Jordan Fagan, Darta Lee, Nick Allegretti, Gabe Megginson and Christian DiLauro — which he “couldn’t have done last year.”

But apart from the offensive front five, all of whom started at one point last season, Illinois has relatively little depth. Eighteen of the 24 graduating seniors started at least one game last season and leave the Illini with holes at key positions like quarterback, middle linebacker and center, not to mention nearly the entire defensive line, long snapper and punter.

With 69 players total on the spring roster, Smith is working with a smaller group, which is made smaller by players who won’t compete in spring practice.

Chayce Crouch is still recovering from the season-ending shoulder surgery he had in October and is likely to remain out for the duration of the spring — Smith added that under no circumstances will Crouch be put in a position to be re-injured.

That leaves only Jeff George Jr. as Illinois’ only scholarship quarterback this spring, as the team awaits the possible arrival of junior college transfer of former Virginia Tech starter Dwayne Lawson and Chicago high schooler Cameron Thomas.

“We’ve got enough to practice,” offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said of the quarterback situation. “We don’t have a game, so that (lack of depth) doesn’t matter.”

The other two major offensive injuries of note are both knee problems — those of running back Dre Brown and receiver Mike Dudek.

The team is doing its best to “slow down, rather than speed up” with Dudek, Smith said. The former freshman All-American is recovering from his second ACL tear and is unlikely to begin practicing right away. Smith added that the staff has “a plan” in place for Brown as well — the DeKalb native hasn’t seen the field yet in college because of his own pair of ACL tears.

Peoria native Kendrick Foster is likely to have a lock on the starting running back position, following the transfer of sophomore Ke’Shawn Vaughn, who is heading home to Nashville to play at Vanderbilt.

Foster exited last year’s season finale against Northwestern with a hip pointer, but should be set to go for his final set of spring practices. Smith held up Foster’s 2016 campaign as an example of the kind of breakout season his players should aspire to and said he expects more out of the senior-to-be this season.

“I am excited about what Kendrick can do, taking this next step,” Smith said. “We graduated four captains. Who’s moving into those roles? You start defining those roles and having guys move into them right now, (Kendrick) should be one of those guys in consideration for that.”

Peter Bailey-Wells can be reached at pbaileywells@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @pbaileywells.